Described below is a method of providing an emergency alert to a wireless local area network terminal, in particular for the IEEE 802 family of wireless communications systems.
In the event of an emergency situation arising, various regional entities wish to notify users using any available communications systems at their disposal. It is likely that legislation will mandate this requirement for any wireless communication system, regardless of the application used, such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP), Text, Video, FAX, Email and Instant Messenger (IM). The wireless technology underpinning the communications media is not of concern to the entities mentioned above.
The IEEE 802 family of wireless communications systems, typically characterized by IEEE 802.11, are architecturally based on short range wireless communications and include, in order of increasing radio range coverage, IEEE 802.15 (Personal Area Networks), IEEE 802.11 (Local Area Networks), IEEE 802.16 (Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks, also referred to as WiMAX) and IEEE 802.22 (Wireless Regional Area Networks). Furthermore, there are other non-802 type networks to which the method applies, such as high performance radio wireless local area network (HIPERLAN) or high performance metropolitan area network (HIPERMAN) and reference to a wireless area network includes any of these.